Even gourmet food found in a dumpster is garbage! There is just something about a half eaten slice of pizza that in a single moment transforms it into common garbage when it goes into the waste can. Food in the trash is such an intriguing subject for our culture that even sitcoms have gotten into making fun of the topic, or have we all forgotten the classic Seinfeld episode where George gets into trouble for eating an eclair? Yet it doesn’t stop there…activist groups have coined the phrase “freeganism” as representing an alternative lifestyle which has as a defining characteristic dumpster diving your dinner on a regular basis.
Isn’t it odd that in a world full of food some people, who could otherwise easily afford a meal, actually prefer to dumpster dive their dinner? Yet when it comes to spiritual matters many individuals who are disgusted by garbage gluttons are seemingly unaffected when they themselves dine on spiritual swill. Are we among them?
Have you ever stopped to consider the condition that your soul is in? One author I was recently reading told an excellent story about a young woman he met in an inn one day. She was a lowly servant girl and she asked this man to teach her to pray. He taught her a simple four word prayer… “Lord show me myself”. After a few days of praying this prayer the girl was so overcome with sorrow and guilt that the weight of it all was almost unbearable. It was at this time that the man taught her another four word prayer… “Lord show me yourself”. She was never the same again. When we come face to face with our spiritual condition, with the decay of our own soul, the selfishness of our heart what else can we do but be disgusted by what we see. Yet, when we see Jesus in all his glory what else can we do but rejoice and be thankful for all He accomplished on the cross.
Friends never forget the spiritual squalor we were in when Jesus found us, because if we do it won’t be long until we have convinced ourselves that our original condition was never really that bad…and that my friends is like waking up one day, going into the kitchen and saying to yourself what’s the difference, I’ll just each some trash!
